We spent the 24th making Tamales and Chocitos (typical Guatemalan Christmas food) and also Ponche (punch) made with fresh fruits and served hot. A Tamale is made from ground and boiled corn with a piece of chicken; a spiced tomato sauce; some have ¼ inch piece of red pepper; and a prune and then they are wrapped in a green broad leaf folded and tied with a strip from a corn husk. These are then steamed; it is suggested that each person’s has a different taste. My experience is when you get to the chicken; eat it cautiously because there may be bones or other parts. We also had them made from potato instead of corn. Just so you don’t think we are deprived living here; we also had a turkey dinner on December 22. We invited friends; Lilly is 24 and this is her first time to eat turkey; she didn’t like the dressing.
In the morning; Dennis was Santa and handed out a toy to each child. This is possibly the only present some children get. This is organized by a few of the business men. They received a doll or small car or a squeaky rubber duck.
There are no presents under the Christmas tree; there may not even be a tree; if anything most will tie a few branches together to resemble a tree.
Because this is our second Christmas; we have a small idea of what to expect. In the afternoon; we drove down the carretera (the main road) where there are hundreds of children and some mothers from adeas (small villages) where there are no roads just a path. These are the very poor families. They are on the sides of the road waving hoping for a small trinket or candy. We bought 200 pounds each of beans; rice; and sugar and hired 3 very poor children from Chimazat to put them into 1 pound bags. Things didn’t go too bad with the beans; a bit worse with the rice and we had to help with the sugar. We collected art and school supplies; little toys; and bagged them with the beans; rice; and sugar. The route we traveled is about 30 miles long; unfortunately we emptied the van at approximately 2 miles. We had over 200 bags. We will start collecting again for next year and maybe we can do more.
It is amazing how happy the people are and they have so little. We as Americans have so much to learn. We have so much and we still complain.
We thank you for all the generous donations of money, school supplies; and toys. The Mothers also received a John track and all others received a Romans’ Road Christmas track.
Here is a list of things given away:
Crayons 257 boxes
Colored Pencils 38 boxes
Pencils 929
Pens 358
School glue 65
Loose-leaf paper 15 packs of 150 sheets
Notebooks 69
There were also miscellaneous school supplies and little toys.
We used Reyna’s brother Gustavo as an organizer of the children attempting to get them in a line and reminding them not to get run over. We also used Jenny a 6 year old whose Mother works in the local tienda; she put a mark on the hand of the children as they received their bag. It was a good thing we thought of this ahead of time; even with this mark on the hand some children asked for a second bag pretending not to receive the first. Curiously one hand would be in their pocket while they were standing in line; others attempted to spit on and rub off the mark. I certainly didn’t scold them for their attempt because I would have done the same.
We had no idea of such an enormous opportunity; during preparation time our bedroom was so packed that we couldn’t walk through it certainly we would give them more than a smile. As stated; the 28 miles that we did not get to would have enjoyed the same bag of gifts. So this is where the request will start; we hope next year we can do more; I don’t know if we would get the entire 30 miles and I know that while we did our best distributing only 2 miles was disappointing to us. An interesting comment that older teenagers and adults would say is they want God to bless us for our generosity; my reply is God has already blessed us and that is why we are here. I also replied that I hope they see daily blessings from God even after their bag is empty.
If you can help us to give things away next year; that would be greatly appreciated. As you are considering this; please remember my suitcase can only weigh 50 pounds and shipping is extremely expensive. Except for the promotional back to school sales; it is cheaper to buy things here. I don’t want to sound greedy but the simplest way to put it is Please Give Us Money and accept the greeting from the people as your greeting God Bless You!
Dennis & Sue
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